Change is the only constant? It’s a phrase we hear a lot these days. But it’s definitely true of business. And it’s also true of internal communications.
As new generations enter the workforce, as technology advances, and as employee expectations shift, internal communication trends are liable to change.
Keeping up with those trends is essential if you want to maintain an engaged and productive workforce. Because internal communications is how you keep employees in the loop, connect them to company culture, and inspire them to go all in for your organization.
So, as we approach the halfway point of 2025, we thought it a good time to recap the internal comms trends we’ve seen developing over recent months.
The latest internal communication trends
The five internal comms trends we’ll be looking at include:
- Ask questions
- Focus on employee-generated content (everyone is an internal communicator)
- Prioritize mobile-first communication
- More visual, conversational, and authentic content
- Focus on employee wellbeing and mental health
Let’s take a look at these in more detail.
1. Ask questions
Employees want more than company updates — they want a voice within their organization. And while companies have traditionally focused on delivering top-down messages, there’s now increasing focus on two-way communication and interaction.
Whether it’s regular pulse surveys, leader Q&As, listening tours, or a good old-fashioned suggestion box, more and more organizations are seeing the value of regularly checking in with their workforce.
They’re giving employees the opportunity to be heard. Asking them questions and seeking their feedback on everything from the employee experience, workplace changes, ideas for innovation, and even the quality of internal comms itself.
It’s certainly a rising priority, with some organizations, including financial tech company Intuit, even employing a dedicated Head of Employee Listening.
So how do you make a success of employee voice initiatives? Here are a few ideas:
- Start by asking the right survey questions. Align questions with your KPIs. Base questions around areas that you’re prepared to take action on. Word your questions neutrally and don’t overwhelm employees with too many survey questions.
- Create a culture of psychological safety. You’re unlikely to get valuable feedback if employees don’t feel comfortable sharing their honest opinions. So train your managers in active listening and empathy. Champion open communication across your whole organization. And consider giving employees the option to give feedback anonymously.
- Close the feedback loop. Only 58% of organizations take action to improve after receiving employee feedback. This leads to a loss of faith in the feedback process. So close that loop. Thank employees for their input, tell them about your findings, and clarify what you plan to do next.
- Seek feedback regularly. The yearly employee engagement survey doesn’t cut it in a rapidly changing workplace. You’re more likely to miss vital insights relating to the employee experience and retention. Quarterly surveys, supplemented with short pulse surveys and increased leadership visibility can give you a consistent and cohesive view of what is happening with your workforce.
2. Focus on employee-generated content (everyone is an internal communicator)
Next on our list of internal communication trends? It’s EGC — or employee generated content.
Traditionally, creating internal communications content has fallen to marketing and communications teams. And while there's certainly still a place for that, internal communications professionals are increasingly taking on the role of curator. They’re enlisting the help of employees in the content creation process.
EGC is any content created by employees. It’s a way to share real, human stories from across your organization. And it can fit into any content category — videos, pictures, stories, blogs, a comment on a news feed post.
EGC is useful for a number of reasons:
- It brings employees into the company conversation
- It helps you publish authentic, relatable content
- It creates a sense of community, trust, and belonging
- It improves employee engagement with internal comms
Ultimately, EGC helps to improve company culture, employee satisfaction, and retention, while reducing content production costs.
There’s an added benefit. You can use EGC on your internal communication channels and externally too. Share employee success stories on your website and social media channels and you build your employer brand, which makes talent acquisition that bit easier.
So how do you make EGC part of your internal comms ecosystem?
Recognition and incentives for contributors encourage more employees to take on the role of content creator. A short EGC playbook tells employees what to include and what to avoid in their content. You can also use internal communication tools with permissions and content moderation features so you can always be sure that EGC aligns with company values.
3. Choosing mobile-first communication
A surefire way to improve comms engagement in 2025? Mobile-first communication tools.
Just 52% of internal communicators are confident they have the right tools for reaching all employees, regardless of their location or work type.
They’re struggling to provide an equitable comms experience for a dispersed workforce, with the hybrid and frontline experience lagging behind that of desk-based staff.
Another revealing stat. Only 45% of comms pros say their comms tools provide a good user experience for employees.
They’re competing with the engaging, customer-grade experiences employees enjoy on popular messaging apps away from work. Clunky, desktop-only communication tech pales in comparison.
There’s another challenge looming. The number of digital natives within your workforce is growing. By 2030, Gen Z is predicted to make up 30% of the US workforce.
This is a generation that leans toward mobile-first, real-time messaging tools. In fact, Gen Z workers actively dislike emails, with 40% of them saying that email restricts their ability to show their personalities at work.
To provide an internal comms experience that aligns with the needs and expectations of an increasingly dispersed and tech-savvy workforce, many comms teams are enlisting the help of mobile-first employee communication and experience tools, in the form of an employee app.
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An app makes internal comms available to every employee smartphone. It makes it easier for your teams to connect, collaborate, access workplace resources, and stay up-to-date with the latest company news, no matter where they work. And it supports a more engaging comms experience.
4. More visual, conversational, and authentic content
What do TikTok and internal communications have in common? Much more than they did a couple of years ago.
The “TikTokification” of internal comms is in full swing, with communicators taking inspiration from social media’s engaging, multimedia, mobile-first content.
We’re talking short-form videos, an interactive news feed, co-worker communities, and snackable, personalized messages. Employees have the opportunity to respond to content too, sharing, reacting, and commenting in a way that keeps the conversation flowing.
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There’s research to support this shift — and to prove that a social-media-style approach doesn’t just suit the younger members of your workforce. For example, we know that 83% of people, a huge majority, prefer watching videos over reading or listening to instructional content.
Interactive, multimedia messages are more engaging. Which means workers are more likely to tune into your employee communication channels and act upon your content. This approach can also revolutionize frontline comms, helping you reach workers who don’t always have the time to read a long email or policy document.
The good news? You don’t need a lot of fancy equipment to incorporate this internal communication trend into your way of working. Smartphones and a comms tool with modern social features are all you need to create Insta-worthy internal communications.
5. Focus on employee wellbeing and mental health
Just last year, “wellbeing and mental health” was the 9th most communicated-about topic on internal communication channels. This year, it’s risen to 5th.
This, unfortunately, is a fair reflection of how the workforce is feeling. 53% of workers in the UK say that the demands of their jobs cause them excessive stress. In the US, 76% of workers report at least one symptom of a mental health condition — burnout, depression, or anxiety.
Despite this epidemic, just 55% of workers say that their organization genuinely prioritizes wellbeing. This is despite 81% saying that they look for mental health support when choosing where to work.
The takeaway? We need to do better.
Caring, empathetic communication helps keep your employees healthy, happy, and motivated. And you get the best results when your words reflect concrete action on employee mental health across your organization.
At Hilton Hotels, an employer renowned for its mental health and wellbeing support, they’ve made it easier, cheaper, and faster for employees to access their employee assistance program (EAP) and rolled out an education curriculum on topics like resilience, stress management, and grief.
At Safeguard Global, they discovered that workers were stressed and struggling with high winter heating bills. So the company stepped in and helped out with a monthly stipend, relieving their workforce of a major worry.
Clear communication about the mental health and wellbeing support you have on offer is vital. And internal comms can help in other ways, too. Because a positive workplace culture (which comms can help build) has a positive impact on employee wellbeing.
When your company culture incorporates appreciation, a sense of purpose, and opportunities for growth, the odds of employees experiencing mental health challenges decrease by up to 87%.
Ensure that everyone — including hard-to-reach hybrid, WFH, and frontline employees — experiences the same access to company culture and wellbeing support, and you experience these benefits across the board.
Put these internal communication trends into practice for a happier, healthier workforce
In 2025, we’ve moved way beyond the desktop-based intranets and top-down, text-based comms of old.
Today, employees want a voice. They want authentic, mobile-first, social-media-style communications that they can engage with on the go. And they want employers to tackle the topics that matter most, with mental health and wellbeing top of the agenda.
Organizations that embrace these internal comms trends stand to improve company culture and the employee experience. They can count on better engagement with company messages and better staff retention.
The C-suite has an important part to play. Internal communicators who have collaborative relationships with leaders are more likely to meet or exceed their success indicators.
Work together with your comms team and you can implement the communication tools, strategies, and cultural change you need to take your communications to the next level.
Blink. And upgrade internal comms with a modern, mobile-first employee app.
